posted 03-31-2013 09:04 AM
The New York Times reports that Yvonne Brill, who developed the industry-standard propulsion system to keep geosynchronous communications satellites in orbit, died Wednesday (March 27, 2013) at 88 in Princeton, New Jersey.

Mrs. Brill — she preferred to be called Mrs., her son said — is believed to have been the only woman in the United States who was actually doing rocket science in the mid-1940s, when she worked on the first designs for an American satellite.

...Mrs. Brill's development of a more efficient rocket thruster to keep orbiting satellites in place allowed satellites to carry less fuel and more equipment and to stay in space longer. The thrusters have the delicate task of maneuvering a weightless satellite that can tip the scales at up to 5,000 pounds on Earth.

Mrs. Brill contributed to the propulsion systems of Tiros, the first weather satellite; Nova, a series of rocket designs that were used in American moon missions; the Atmosphere Explorer, the first upper-atmosphere satellite; and the Mars Observer, which in 1992 almost entered a Mars orbit before losing communication with Earth.

From 1981 to 1983, Mrs. Brill worked for NASA developing the rocket motor for the space shuttle. In a statement after Mrs. Brill's death, Michael Griffin, president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, praised her as "a pioneering spirit" who coupled "a clear vision of what the future of an entire area of systems should be with the ingenuity and genius necessary to make that vision a reality."

posted 03-31-2013 12:39 PM
In the late 1980s Yvonne was based in London working for Inmarsat. She was my customer for the propulsion systems on the Inmarsat 2 satellites being built by BAe. Always a very knowlegeable person and a fair customer. She was described by Carl Stechman of Marquardt at the time as the World's oldest living female rocket propulsion engineer.

413 is inMember

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posted 03-31-2013 12:48 PM
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David CareyMember

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posted 03-31-2013 02:49 PM
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spacemanMember

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posted 03-31-2013 04:25 PM
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GACspaceguyMember

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posted 03-31-2013 07:43 PM
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East-FrisianMember

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posted 04-01-2013 01:07 AM
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posted 04-01-2013 07:02 AM
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JeffMember

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posted 04-01-2013 09:39 AM
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hlbjrMember

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posted 04-01-2013 09:49 AM
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Hart SastrowardoyoMember

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posted 04-01-2013 10:21 AM
Apparently, she was good at making beef stroganoff. SMH.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27328From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 04-01-2013 10:39 AM
Although I agree it was inappropriate for the lede and that the writer should have recognized that, it seems to me that the interview with Brill's son set the tone for the obituary.

I would bet that to him her "mean beef stroganoff" and her loyalty to family was much more prevalent in his own mind. I think the writer was reflecting what Brill's son was emphasizing.